Transfers: The Play On School Diversity NYC – And I – Needed

Transfers, aplay about two students from the Bronx, one Black, one Hispanic, who are competing for a scholarship at an elite, Massachusetts liberal arts university, was originally developed in the summer of 2016 at Vassar College. But it arrives in New York City in 2018, smack in the middle of a raging controversy about admitting low-achieving students (and thus presumably minority) into high-achieving (albeit public) schools.

Unlike Lincoln Center’s Admissions, which tackled the subject from the perspective of high-achieving white students and their families, Transfers explores two different questions: Should standards be lowered for underprivileged students, and what toll does being thrust into an unfamiliar, sometimes hostile (Yale, anyone?) environment take on those admitted?

The former is addressed at a faculty meeting, where an African-American literature professor (Leon Addison Brown) refuses to accept a student whose low test scores suggest he would not be able to handle the college’s rigorous academics.

“I earned my education, I earned my degrees, I wasn’t handed anything,” he lectures the case worker urging him to overlook this applicant’s deficits, “You want to make it easier because you feel sorry for him. But you don’t respect people by lowering standards… Standards exist for a reason. The point is to broaden and expand, not to tear down… You send us students who are unprepared and they are taking slots from the more deserving!…. You are setting him up to fail!”

Separate from the fates of these two particular students, Transfers is asking an even more difficult question, a question that resonated with me on a personal level.

This September, my oldest son will start an Ivy League University. My son is African-American.

I never gave much thought to what it would be like for my kids to attend a school where they are not the majority. Maybe that’s because I immigrated to the U.S. and always felt like “the other” myself. Maybe it’s because my sons were going to the same schools as their dad had, the ones his mother picked after the most coveted school in NYC proved not good enough. My in-laws wanted their children in the best academic environment possible. All other concerns ran a distant second. (Plus, they wanted them to learn to “play the white man’s game.”)

I’ve written before about how I resent my children’s “diverse” presence being seen by some as just another value-add to a well rounded school – for other people.

Transfers tackles head on what that experience is like.

Clarence (Ato Blankson-Wood) explains, “I transform into what people need me to be… I’m always invisible. I see people but they don’t see me. They see my size, my race… They see all that, but they don’t see me.”

While Christofer (Juan Castano) struggles with survivor’s guilt.

“I saw the exit and no one else did,” he laments about keeping his head down, working hard, not getting into trouble, and earning his unlikely shot at escape. “It’s not my fault I know where the exit is, and you don’t.”

So as NYC debates what effect bringing underprivileged students into privileged schools will have on the kids already there, let’s think about how it will affect the newcomers, too. What they might struggle with and how they can best be supported.

And for anyone who thinks that I am taking this all way too personally, look at the artwork for Transfers, above.

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We are parents, teachers, students and community members who are strong in our belief that all children, especially those historically underserved by the traditional system, have the right to attend excellent schools.

Alina Adams is a New York City mom of 2 school-age children (and one off to college!), who happens to be a New York Times best-selling author. She’s made it her mission to help all parents find the best school for their child.

Vivett Dukes teaches public school in Queens and confronts the challenges faced by students and teachers of color, as well as exposing the school-to-prison pipeline.